VIRTUAL REALITY: TEMPORARY DISTRACTION OR REAL OPPORTUNITY

A one-day, non-technical professional training course for managers. Understand the true capabilities and cost advantages of VR and realise its full potential within your organisation.

Further dates are now available here with courses running in October and November.

VR has been around for decades but recent technical advances have caused a huge surge in popularity within the last 24 months. Haven’t we been here before? Is this yet another failed push by the tech companies with gimmicky technology crying out for real-world applications? Or, have we reached a tipping point similar to the birth of the web in the early 90’s where it’s now time to get on board or be left behind? Given the huge investment in VR by Facebook, Nokia, Microsoft and Samsung it’s imperative that you and your company are ‘VR aware’.

This one-day, strategic, non-technical course will present an unbiased review of VR technology. It will explain and clarify the benefits of VR together with the true costs required to develop effective VR applications. It will consider in detail the critical success factors for implementing VR projects exploring why some have been successful whilst others have failed. Delegates will also get to experience state-of-the-art VR equipment during the event.

Who should attend?

This course is targeted at potential users of Virtual Reality, specifically sales and marketing managers, product development managers, product design professionals, strategic policy makers and those seeking to better understand how VR may give them a competitive edge. It will explain the emerging business opportunities, costs and timescales of VR development.

Attendees may also include managing directors, board members, operations managers, technical directors, heads of business architecture, consultants, or those keen to understand more about VR and its potential impact on their business.

This training day is priced at £150+VAT and includes the training event, lunch, VR demonstrations and printed materials.

Each event is limited to 15 places. Training will take place at the Digital Design Studio within the heart of Glasgow’s Digital Media Quarter.

Bio

The training course will be run by Dr Paul Chapman, Acting Head of the Digital Design Studio. Paul is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the British Computer Society and member of the RSE Young Academy. He has been working professionally within the field of computer graphics and VR since 1996.

100% of delegates rate the VR training event as Excellent or Very Good.

“Thoroughly enjoyed the one day course, great introduction to VR, course trainers were fantastic at answering our questions. However what this course really did was put into perspective the potential future VR applications, and how our manufacturing R&D research centre can get further involved with VR.”Christine Dent, Advanced Forming Research Centre (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK)

“Very useful and interesting introduction to the VR technology. A highly interactive course that promoted understanding and discussions on opportunties to implement VR within our organisation”.Nicola Zuelli Forming Team Leader at the Advanced Forming Research Centre (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK)

“The presenter is a fountain of knowledge with all things VR and AR. The course is valuable to anyone with or without prior knowledge of the subject as it is peppered with lots of little knowledge bombs throughout!”
Andrew Dobbie, Founder, MadeBrave

“This is an excellent course to understand VR; where it has come from, where it is and where it may be going to and how to use it.”Duncan McArthur Director of Professional Activities The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

“An excellent course giving a very good grounding in the history of VR and the potential uses of VR.”Chris McGregor, Historic Environment Scotland

“If you are curious about the potential for VR to improve or affect your business, then this course is an excellent starting point for your enquiry.”123Stephen Roe. Theatre-Work UK.

“Great introduction to the possibilities and limitations of VR for the non-expert. Very useful.”Dr Peter Hohenstein, The Roslin Institute

“A highly informative session providing an in-depth overview of the exciting and varied applications of this VR technology. The diversity of attendees made for a very informative day with good networking opportunities.”Rosalie Menon, Senior Lecturer, Architectural Technology.

“Coming to the course I wasn’t really clear what VR even was… by the end, not only did I understand VR, its origins and developments, but I also had a really good grasp of how and where VR could usefully be applied in all sorts of different contexts.. all in a matter of hours! I could not recommend this course more highly.”
Polly Christie GSA Archives and Collections

Note: dedicated tailor made courses for companies are also available. Contact AvrilMcAllister for more info.

The Glasgow School of Art and Digital Design Studio had lots to show off this year for XPoNorth in Inverness, participating in several panels and and hosting an evening of drinks with friends and colleagues.

Some of this year’s best work was on display, including heritage, serious games, and medical projects from the student body, as well as additional projects by the Design students at the nearby Forres campus. The evening was capped off with a great slide presentation and fashion show displaying some recent pieces from GSA Textile Design students . All in all, a great event.

The DDS’s own Ronan Breslin, programmer leader for the MDes in Sound for moving Image, had an opportunity to offer his insights into running a recording studio at one of the Audio Engineering Societies recent meetings. Answering questions on how the industry of sound engineering has changed with advancing technology, and how to complete in a market where home recording can be done on portable laptops.

Details about the event (and further upcoming events) can be found here.

“The event was very well attended by a very enthusiastic group of sound production students and AES members. The attendees enthusiasm was evident via their well-considered questions and discussions at the social event afterwards. It was a privilege to share a platform with eminent musician/engineers Paul McGeechan and Brian McNeil. Thanks to the AES for having me.” – Ronan Breslin

The DDS, in collaboration with Birmingham Conservatoire’s Integra Lab, have completed work on their Transforming Transformation project – a new human-centred approach that allows musicians and sound designers to manipulate sound through a 3D virtual environment.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Transforming Transformation enables sound sources to be “touched”, “grabbed”, “dragged”, and “placed” within a 3D virtual environment. Through this system, a sound source’s real-world location corresponds to its spatial position within a virtual acoustic space that can be manipulated. In other words, if a sound designer wants a sound to appear to come from behind the listener, they just “pick it up” and “move it to the back” of the virtual space.

With the initial work on the project complete, the project team plans to continue to refine the virtual environment and address any key issues identified in the project, and we wish them continued success!

More information on the development of Transforming Transformation can be found here, and you can also read about the projects published results here.

We would like to congratulate Sound for Moving Image student Kevin Murray, who has won a The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Scotland New Talent Award for his short film “Paperclip”. Well done!

I didn’t even entertain the idea of getting nominated, never mind winning, and as such had absolutely no prep; even in my head, for an acceptance speech.

As I still didn’t believe I had a chance of winning once I had been nominated, I fully intended to have a nice time being at the awards and drinking all the free booze. It’s only good fortune and my friend Colin (Who did the camera work for paperclip) being incredibly late, that I wasn’t completely smashed on free wine before things even began.

Upon winning, I went proper giddy, as is evident from the official BAFTA photo of all the winners doing there best to look regal and winnery, and me laughing like a maniac beside my pal Danny Boyle.

The DDS was given an opportunity to strut its stuff for Scotland’s biggest daily magazine show “Alive at Five” on STV, and show off some of our recent research work in 3D visualisation, haptic design, and medical/ historical digital recreation.

Laser scan of plaster casts in one of the 1st floor studios

A key highlight of our recent work has been digitising and creating an interactive walkthrough of the GSA’s own Macintosh Building, which was badly damaged in a fire in 2014. This work is now being used to help inform and support the building’s restoration.

This week in the Glasgow CCA is Sound Thought – the University of Glasgow’s annual postgraduate sonic arts festival.

Through a series of concerts, screenings, performances, discussions and workshops, the three-day festival will show how research and practice from a range of sound and music disciplines communicate across artistic canons.

DDS PhD student Jessica Argo and tutor Ronan Breslin both have works that will be performed as part of the festival, this Thursday evening.

Jessica will be presenting a paper and providing samples of Soundscapes used in her research: “Immersive Soundscapes to elicit Anxiety in Exposure Therapy: Physical Desensitization and Psychological Catharsis”

Jessica will present physiological data analysis from her experiments, to reveal the most powerful and consistent anxiety-triggering sounds. Questionnaire responses also offer insight into participants’ emotional involvement and reactions.

Ronan’s work goes under the title “Adolescent Nuclear Angst…Or how I Learned to Stick My Head Between my Knees“.

Ronan notes:

As a child of the late 70’s and early 80’s my abiding memory was of the malevolent spectre of nuclear annihilation. Ronald Reagan was elected US president promising to confront an “evil empire” and in my school playground we fretted about the latest scare-mongering TV documentary or drama depicting the imminent apocalypse. The Soviet Union was the evil bogeyman waiting in the woods; not witches, demons or monsters. After watching one particular film “Threads”, a 10-year old me recalls asking my all-knowing, military-trained, strong and protective dad what we would do if there was a nuclear war. “Stick our heads between our knees and kiss our arses’ goodbye” was his glib reply.

This AV piece will have resonance as a warning from the past as well as offering me a chance for me to finally get payback on my dad for his inconsiderate flippancy.